A netbook is a laptop. It’s just smaller, cheaper, and typically less powerful than most other laptops on the market. But those three things are enough to set netbooks apart from other notebooks in the minds of most consumers, and according to a survey from PriceGrabber.com, 55% of consumers think netbooks complements traditional laptops rather than replacing them.

It’s not particularly surprising that most people would rather use a full time laptop for some or many tasks than one that was designed to be low cost and ultraportable. What’s a bit more surprising to me is the implication that 45% of consumers do think that netbooks are replacements for traditional laptops — indicating that many people just don’t need a big screen or a powerful processor to meet most of their computing needs.

The PriceGrabber study defined netbooks as machines with screens smaller than 11 inches and price tags lower than $500, which seems about right to me.

The survey also points out something that’s been pretty clear for the last year or two: The increasing demand for cheap netbooks has led to a drop in the overall prices for computers. PriceGrabber.com reports that the average cost of a laptop in its directory dropped from $808 in December 2008 to $645 in December, 2009.

The complete study has all sorts of other interesting tidbits, including the odd fact that the largest age group of netbook owners seems to have shifted from 35-54 to 45-64 over the past few months, and that solid state disks aren’t really taking off.

SquareTrade provides warranties for computers. So the company’s in a pretty good position to know how frequently different types of machines break down. And the company recently put out a study with data showing that almost a third of all laptop owners “reported a failure to SquareTade” within the first 3 years of purchasing a notebook. That’s not the most surprising stat I’ve ever read. Now here are a few more more stats from the study:

• Netbooks are expected to have a 20% higher failure rate than other laptops in the first year due to hardware malfunctions.
• Asus and Toshiba had the fewest hardware malfunctions within 3 years of purchase, while HP had the most.
• The netbook data in the study has only been tracked for one year, so it’s too early to say how netbooks will stack up on the three year standard.

Now, that said, SquareTrade uses a very general definition of a netbook. Basically, it’s a laptop that costs less than $400.

Some machines that I would say are definitely netbooks (thanks to small size, light weight, and relatively cheap price, cost closer to $500. And there are plenty of 12 inch and larger laptops that are available for under $400, but which are definitely not netbooks. It’s not clear whether these were grouped into the category for the purposes of this report.

But you know what? The study basically makes the claim that cheaper laptops break more frequently than expensive laptops. Not only am I not surprised to see these results, but I’m kind of relieved. I should certainly hope that if you pay $1000 for a notebook that it would be designed to be more durable than a $300 model.

via Gizmodo

I know, I know. Technically, netbooks are just little notebooks. But the truth of the matter is that there are a number of things that most full sized notebooks can do that are tougher to do on a netbook. For one thing, most full sized laptops have optical disc drives for installing software, listening to CDs, or watching or burning DVDs. Netbooks also typically have slower processors and lower resolution displays than most laptops which makes them less than ideal for watching 1080p video, playing some games, or performing other CPU-intensive activities.

On the other hand, netbooks are good enough for 90% of the tasks that most people perform on a day to day basis. They can handle web browsing, office document editing, and other duties with ease. Heck, you can edit video on them if you really want to. It’ll just take a lot longer than on a system with a Core 2 Duo CPU.

But I’m probably preaching to the choir here. Most of you already know these things. But according to an NPD study, it appears the general public might not have gotten the message yet. NPD reports that “60 percent of consumers who purchased a netbook instead of a notebook though their netbooks would have the same functionality as notebooks.” Among those who chose a netbook instead of a notebook, only 58% said they were “very satisfied,” while 70% of those who had planned to get a netbook all along were satisfied with the purchase.

Shocking, no? It turns out that there’s a better chance you’ll be happy with your purchase if you know what you’re looking for before forking over the money. Who knew?

Anyway, there’s one statistic in the study that’s even stranger. While the main appeal of netbooks is their light weight, small size, and general portability, 60% of netbook buyers report that they never take the little laptops out of the house. I suppose it could just be aspirational thinking: You buy a netbook because you think you’ll carry it with you everywhere you go, only to realize you never go anywhere that you need a computer. But maybe the idea of a cheap, light weight computer for use around the house just appeals to people who don’t really ever expect to become road warriors.

What do you think? Do you regularly use your netbook around the house, on the go, or both?

via Laptop Magazine

Google appears to be planning a netbook usability study, and the company is seeking recruits. CNet found a posting on Craigslist which points to a document netbook users can fill out to join the study. Participants need to be able to get to Google’s Mountain View or San Francisco offices, so if you’re reading this in New Zealand, you probably won’t want to bother signing up. But the study is interesting for a few reasons:

• Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently shrugged off questions about the Google Android operating system on netbooks
• But Schmidt did say that netbooks were ideal for interacting with cloud services like Google Docs, Gmail, and other Google services

In other words, you shouldn’t sign up for this study expecting Google to load Android on your netbook. But it looks like Google is trying to get a better handle on how people use netbooks so that the company can better build its cloud-based services to work well with netbooks.

You know what I’d like to see? Online synchronization of bookmarks, passwords and other data for Google Chrome. Right now Opera lets you synchronize your preferences between a web browser on your desktop computer and netbook, making it easy to keep your work flow the same no matter which device you’re using. And you can achieve something similar with Firefox by installing Mozilla Weave or Xmarks. But there’s no sync option for Google Chrome yet, despite the fact that Google was an early innovator in this space with the now-defunct Google Browser Sync.

Computer repair company RESCUECOM puts out regular reports on computer reliability. Basically, the company analyzes the number of service calls it gets about computers from a particular company with the number of units shipped by that computer maker. Using this method, RESCUECOM concluded that Apple computers were the most reliable in 2008. But for the first quarter of 2009, Asus and Lenovo top the list, with Apple falling to second or third place depending on how you interpret RESCUECOM’s figures.

So what led to this shift? Netbooks. Asus began shipping huge numbers of Eee PC mini-laptops in 2008 and that led to a quick increase in overall market share. But RESCUECOM got a “disproportionately small” number of calls for support regarding these netbooks and other Asus products. This could mean that Asus notebooks really are more reliable. Or it could be that people who buy a $400 ultraportable don’t expect miracles from it and don’t bother to call for support if something goes wrong.

via Electronista